Virginia Governor Kaine Announces $20 Million for Prescription Monitoring Program

Funding comes from prescription drug plea agreement

November 15, 2007 -- Richmond – Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine today announced that the Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) will receive $20 million as part of the plea agreement involving the Purdue Frederick Company, Inc. John Brownlee, United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, will present the funds at PMP’s annual conference on Nov. 16.

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“This money will help the Commonwealth track and fight the abuse of OxyContin and other pain medications. It is a welcome addition in our continuing efforts against drug abuse,” Governor Kaine said.

“The Prescription Monitoring Program is a response to the issue of ‘doctor shopping’ and the chilling effect of schedule II drug abuse, especially OxyContin, on legitimate prescribing of pain medications,” said Sandra Whitley Ryals, Director of the Department of Health Professions.

The funds will be placed in a trust account for the operation of the PMP, which collects information on prescriptions dispensed across the state and provides prescriber education. PMP was introduced in the 2002 Virginia General Assembly as a pilot program in southwest Virginia and went statewide in 2006.

“This funding allows DHP to strengthen our efforts to educate physicians on how to use the prescriptions database,” Ryals said. She added that the Department submitted a full briefing to the court on the educational use of the money prior to the settlement.

The third annual PMP conference on prescriber education will be held at the agency’s headquarters in Richmond. Friday’s PMP conference features keynoter Dr. Rollin Gallagher, MD, MPH, editor of Pain Medicine, speaking on “The Pain Decade and Public Health.”

Also featured will be the introduction of the e-learning module, a partnership between the Department of Health Professions and Virginia Commonwealth University to provide free access to online continuing education for Virginia prescribers. It is the first of its kind in the nation.

“We are very pleased that PMP is doing well with the help of the enforcement and health communities and is expanding so rapidly,” said Ralph Orr (804-367-4523), Director Prescription Monitoring Program. “There are presently 18 million records in the database and as awareness continues of the service to Virginia’s efforts to thwart illegal prescription abuse, we expect the value and the records to continue to expand rapidly.”

A complete description of PMP and the November conference is available on the department’s Web site: www.dhp.virginia.gov.

Source: Virginia Governor